Gonstead Family Chiropractic- Blog

Collagen, everyone has heard of it, but not many have used it or know the benefits of it. Dr Zach Beatty, San Diego chiropractor will explain what collagen is, the benefits of it, how it relates to leaky gut, and how we can consume collagen. Maybe a quick refresher on what leaky gut is would be beneficial prior to diving right into how collagen can help it and why your your chiropractor in San Diego is even talking about it. Leaky gut is where your intestinal wall becomes permeable (small holes open up in the lining of the digestive tract. When these holes open, particles meant for excretion are able to go through these holes and into our blood stream. This creates a whole wide range of issues that are caused by this leaky gut. Collagen is an amazing way for these holes to be filled, but what in the world is collagen exactly. Collagen is one of the most abundant proteins in our bodies. Collagen the main protein found in our connective tissue as well as skin. Connective tissue are things like what holds organs in place,cartilage, bone, as well as what lines our organs and for our conversation, specifically digestive tract. But what function does this have on our health. Collagen is what protects our organs, holds our bone and muscles together, This is extremely important aspect of our health due to the fact that our chiropractor in La Jolla deals with bones, cartilage, as well as digestive issues on a daily basis. There are a plethora of benefits of collagen. Lets focus on some of the bigger ones for now and in later articles we can dive into more. From Dr. Josh Axe there are seven major benefits of collagen. The seven major ones are, improves hair and skin health, decreases joint pain and degeneration, increases metabolism as well as energy output and muscle mass, improves strength of nails hair and teeth, improves the health of the liver, protects cardiovascular health and most importantly to our topic it helps heal leaky gut. Our goal as a chiropractor in San Diego is help create a healthy environment as San Diego as a whole is a very health conscious city. Leaky gut is helped tremendously by the use of collagen. It really is a a filler to those permeable lining walls of our digestive tract. So what exactly is going on with the collagen that makes it so powerful in the process of healing leaky gut. Collagen as stated before is what helps line digestive tract. So by consuming collagen you are adding support to what is already meant to be there. The collagen actually aids in breaking down proteins while also filling amino acids into the lining walls of the digestive tract. There is even a study that shows decreased serum concentration of collagen linked to irritable bowel syndrome. Irritable bowel syndrome in short is a disorder that affects the large intestine. Some common symptoms with this are abdominal pain, bloating, gas, constipation, and diarrhea. So how to get collagen into you system in a healthy manner. There are a few ways to do so. In my opinion the best way is real bone broth. Remember when grandma would make that chicken noodle soup homemade when you were sick? The kind that once in the refrigerator would become a blob like gelatin, that's the collagen. Another way is powder made from bone broth. The powder is similar to that of a protein powder than you can mix and consume. The other way is by taking collagen supplements. Yes much like everything else on the market there are good ones and there are not so good ones. Our chiropractic office in La Jolla carries and recommends Standard Process supplements as they are whole food, naturally grown on a farm in Wisconsin. There have been studies previously that have shown their soil is one of very few if any other soil in the country that is truly organic, etc. If you or someone you know is suffering from symptoms related to leaky gut, irritable bowel, or some other digestive issues, please have them call our chiropractic office in San Diego to see how we can help. Many times low back pain can actually relate to our digestive tract and digestive issues as well.

San Diego chiropractor Dr Zach Beatty DC is about to drop some intense knowledge on those nasty little bunions we have all seen at some point. Not only are bunions a sight to be seen, but can also create severe toe pain which may lead to overall foot pain. These things are often mishandled with a lot of people being informed of medication, as seen on TV gimmicks, or even surgery. Now please do not take this out of context, all the above mentioned have their own time and place of necessity without a doubt. Bunions are also widely used as a diagnosis without an explanation as to what they are, without a reason as to why they formed, or even how they can be fixed. But how big of an issue are bunions... big enough issue that approximately 5.2 million people in the United States deal with them. Thankfully our chiropractic office in La Jolla has seen bunions and has had significant success in helping those suffering from bunions. So what is a bunion? Let's start nice an easy by saying a bunion is. The mayo clinic describes bunions as bony formation at the base of the big toe. forcing it towards the other toes creating the big toe to get bigger and stick out. WebMD states that bunions can run in the family and are caused by weak or poor foot structure. Bunions can form from a wide array of reasons, however as your San Diego Chiropractor, bunions form when here is a dropped arch in your foot. Specifically your navicular bone drops creating flat feet or fallen arch causing rotation of our metatarsals enough to the point that we have this little tiny bone called sesamoid that will also spin forcing our big toe to move inwards toward our other toes. When this occurs a bony projection will form on the inside of our feet. Take a look at this x-ray of ones foot. This formation is know as hallux valgus. This formation will rub on shoes, creating what some feel to be unsightly, and ultimately creating significant big toe pain. Our bodies are compensating machines, so when we have pain in one area, we naturally shift ourselves away from the pain, which can cause other issues down the line. If you are suffering from bunions, do not wait, give your chiropractor in La Jolla a call today and see how we can help give your life back. Bunions are not the most common thing we see in our La Jolla chiropractic office, but once we see someone these issues are made aware by our patients. Once we are notified we jump right in to get them back to normal life. The biggest thing first and foremost is to decrease the discomfort of the big toe pain from bunions. Now the question is how in the world does a chiropractor in San Diego help with bunions. We adjust the sesamoid bone that has spun as well as the navicular bone (the fallen arch component). In combination we see dramatic changes in the majority of our patients suffering from bunions as well as other foot like pains. The last component of all foot pain is the shoes we are wearing today. They are not made like they used to be made. There are minimal if any arch supports, so please do yourself and your loved ones a huge favor by getting a great pair of orthotics. By a great pair, they should not buckle at the arch by simply putting a little bit of some pressure on them. They should be fairly rigid in that area as the majority of foot pain, low back pain, and knee pain can be derived from fallen arches and flat feet to some capacity. If you ever have any questions or concerns about bunions, foot pain, low back pain, neck pain, or headaches please do not hesitate to reach out via email to Dr. Zach Beatty, your San Diego Chiropractor who is conveniently located in UTC La Jolla California.

Dr Zach Beatty, DC your ﻿﻿﻿San Diego chiropractor﻿﻿﻿ is about to drop some real knowledge on a very hot topic, leaky gut. In his San Diego chiropractic office he sees this regularly with all kinds of signs, symptoms, and thankfully there are remedies that can really help those suffering from leaky gut. Some things that are essential to cover are, what is leaky gut, what are some signs and symptoms of leaky gut, how to treat or things to help remedy leaky gut, and is chiropractic beneficial in the healing of leaky gut. These are really important things because as of right now leaky gut is hard to diagnose and is somewhat of a medical mystery according to WebMD. If we do not know what leaky gut is, how can we know if may or may not have it? According to WebMD, leaky gut syndrome is a list of symptoms, but again is somewhat of a medical mystery. It is not a diagnosis taught in medical schools. We also do not know a lot about the gut, but if you have been following the news, studies are coming out in rapid fashion on gut brain connection, leaky gut syndrome, and other studies simply on the role our gut plays in our overall health. The most basic explanation of what leaky gut is without getting into signs and symptoms yet, is that our gut becomes permeable. When these openings occur in our gut, it allows particles of what we ingest to be dispersed throughout our body rapid. Many of these particles are not something we should normally have floating around inside of us. They typically go through our digestive tract and what is not absorbed gets excreted. So think of it as little toxic particles being released in the body. What do you think the outcome is? You guessed it, our bodies start to kick into overdrive to rid them of it, when this happens it opens pandoras box of conditions that can result from it. So what are some of the most common signs and symptoms of leaky gut, well lets get right into it. Dr. Josh Axe is legendary in the world of health. He has one of the most outstanding websites full of content that is helping thousands of people daily. To be a complete open book here, when patients come in to our La Jolla chiropractic office looking for certain things I will find the link on his site and email it over to them for their pleasurable reading, but more importantly to give them knowledge on a topic that is concerning to them. So here is his take on some signs and symptoms of leaky gut﻿ that will help you identify if you have it or not. The essentials of this are that seven signs you may have leaky gut syndrome. Food sensitivities, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), autoimmune diseases, thyroid problems, nutrient malabsorption, inflammatory skin conditions, and mood issues or autism. Now if we think of these signs, how many people can you count in the next 30 seconds to one minute you personally know whom have at least one of these? As a San Diego chiropractor I cannot count fast enough how many people we see with at a minimum one of these if not multiple. So if you are suffering from leaky gut and have determined it by seeking proper healthcare professionals diagnosis, which I highly recommend a naturopath, chiropractor, functional medicine doctor, or a more holistic practitioner to be the one that looks into this for you. Here are some tips to help you remedy it. Once it is determined you have leaky gut syndrome, the next step is figuring out how to fix the problem. There is a "simple" four step process. To make it even more simple, lets use Dr Josh Axes four R's, Remove, Replace, Repair, and Rebalance. Seems easy enough right? Not so fast. Drive around San Diego for a few minutes and look at the foods available to us. Many of these are damaging to our gut. Some real quick and easy ones that should be removed are processed foods, GMOs, sugars, basically foods that are inflammatory. So we first must remove those types of foods. Then we need to replace the damaging foods with ones that will help heal the gut as well as be anti-inflammatory. After removing and replacing it is time to repair. Again the big issue with leaky gut is the permeability allowing particles to work their way through the walls of the gut. So we need to repair those leaky holes. One of the best things you can eat is collagen (ie bone broth), followed by foods with omega-3 fatty acids, and other nutrient dense anti-inflammatory foods. The last step in the four step process is rebalance. This one is massively important for far more than just leaky gut. In our San Diego chiropractic office we recommend probiotics to almost everyone that walks in because almost everyone has at some point taken an antibiotic (yes these destroy our gut flora). The idea of the probiotic is to feed our good bacteria in our gut that will help balance out and fend out the bad bacteria that grows inside. Now that we have the four R's to creating a healthier gut for you. How in the world am I as a chiropractor in San Diego going to speak or even connect chiropractic into leaky gut. Here is how. It is real simple and if you blink you may honestly just miss it. Chiropractic is more than just neck pain, low back pain, or headaches. What we are really focusing on is your nervous system. Your nervous system is the connection from your brain to the rest of your entire body. So when there is irritation on any one of your spinal nerves, we seek to remove that interference allowing full flowing nerve supply to all of tissues, cells, glands, and in this case your organ. Yes your gut is an organ, it is actually one of our largest organs in our entire body behind skin. Check out the image at the top of this article of how your nerves are connected to all of your organs. If you ever have any questions about this topic, please reach out to us. Our chiropractic office in San Diego is conveniently located, but as equally as important we are accessible via email. Let us be a reliable resource to you for your health needs. If you are looking for a chiropractor in San Diego, give us a call today and see how we can help you out in other aspects besides just low back pain, neck pain, headaches, as well as car accidents.

Being a chiropractor in San Diego can be very demanding both time, energy, and stress. Yet it never feels too much of either of those items. Surely most of you reading this have a very bustling life. Driving around San Diego, it is easy to see the fast pace lifestyle, yet more and more people find time to get their mind right. How does one do this, better yet how does one do this in both a time and mentally beneficial manner? The answer is not what you may think. It is not yoga, pilates, or even sitting cross legged "hmmming". It is Meditation and before you close this down, meditation is not what everyone used to stereotype it as. It is actually one of the most commonly used tools throughout the world through all walks of life. So what exactly is meditation, where can you mediate in San Diego, how does it relate to chiropractic, and most importantly how can I benefit from meditation. So lets jump right in. Meditation can be viewed from a lot of different aspects. Some want to connect with themselves, others want to have a mental down time, and others just want to become more aware of a certain aspect within their lives. Meditation can be used for all sorts of things, however it all comes down to one thing, calmness within oneself. Later in this article San Diego chiropractor Dr Zach Beatty will give some tips on how to meditate, but first where can one get into this state of mind in and around San Diego. San Diego has some amazing locations to meditate. Some are free, some you may have to pay, while some even meditate at home, thankfully it is something that you can do just about anywhere. How many times have you walked past La Jolla Shores, Mission Beach, UCSD campus, or other public locations seeing people sitting cross legged, eyes closed and totally within themselves. Pretty common isn't it. So why in the world is a chiropractor in San Diego talking about meditation? Because it relates to chiropractic, the spine, and our nervous system. Our bodies have stressors placed upon them daily if not hourly. It does not have to be that mental stress, it can be a physical, emotional, or toxic stress. Our La Jolla chiropractic office discuses the three T's that creates subluxation, Thoughts, Traumas, and Toxins. We are constantly surrounded by stressors. The stress of our jobs, impure foods we put in our bodies, making travel plans to stay-cation in La Jolla, San Diego haha. These stressors put our body in a defensive drive to find a remedy to alleviate it from the stress. If we eat impure foods we find the fastest way to excrete it (ie vomit or diarrhea) or we digest it creating our body to go into overdrive trying to fight off the toxins that food contained. This uses energy, can create an inflammatory response and ultimately create subluxation along our spine. How can we eliminate those three T's, well lets start off with mediation. It can help reduce emotional stress. So lets talk about other benefits one can expect from mediation. Meditation has been shown to help reduce stress. There was study performed in 2013 in the journal Health Psychology that showed mediation reduced the production of cortisol. A huge benefit is lowering of blood pressure, with a brief study showing that people were able to get off of their blood pressure medicines. Meditation can also help improve your immunity, improve brain development, and irritable bowel syndrome. Now if those benefits don't tickle your fancy, how about something as simple as taking a moment to get out of your busy life and have a moment to yourself where you can just zone out for a few minutes to recharge. Our hope is that you will find benefit in taking some time to dive into meditation. Patients in our La Jolla chiropractic office have even given tips that work for them in regards to meditation. It was explained as if you are at the train station, every train will pass you by, but do not focus on them, just acknowledge their presence and move on. This is exactly what needs to be done while meditating, take note of your wild racing thoughts, but let them pass as quickly as they came. So take a few moments tomorrow out of your busy day, head to Pacific Beach, La Jolla, or somewhere else around San Diego to give a mediation. If anyone asks what you are doing, just tell them your San Diego Chiropractor sent you to get your mind right before coming in to get your spine right.

San Diego Chiropractor Dr Zach Beatty is prepared to go out on a limb here. San Diego is a hub of technology (biotech) outside of the giants of Silicon Valley. Our children's hands are filled with a smart phones before a drivers licenses, and lets be honest here sometimes before books. But this comes at what risk or downfall. Of course at our chiropractic clinic in La Jolla we have technology (ie. computers, tvs, etc) so we are not exempt completely either. However we do set our things up for ergonomic success as well as properly position ourselves accordingly. Lets not get too far off track. What is the most common posture while texting or looking at a table? The forward head tilt, hunched forward with rounded back and shoulders sounds about right, doesn't it. This posture over long periods of time is creating a condition becoming wildly known as Text Neck Syndrome. This is something as a chiropractor in La Jolla using x-rays see daily. This is not just a condition of our children, but our parents, cousins, etc. This condition has some major long term health affects, but to be brief, people are setting themselves up for neck pain, back pain, headaches, and sleeping problems. Research is showing that for every inch our head is shifted forward in posture that it is adding 10 lbs of strain on the muscles in our neck. This is creating structural problems within our spines, specifically in our necks. This muscle strain will lead to muscle tightness in your neck, stiff neck, and what people have termed holding their stress in their traps or shoulders. While we use x-rays in our San Diego chiropractic office to visually see these changes, while also allowing us to visually determine the best approach to correct the neck pain, back pain, headaches, and sleeping problems. At the end of this article is a nice image of what text neck looks like on x-rays and what a normal neck should look like on x-rays. So why is technology the new tobacco? How many times have you sat down with your friends in Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Little Italy, or Kearny Mesa to get dinner while everyone is on their phones. Conversation dies out, people are zoned in on their technology. Better yet how many times do you check your phone daily or even hourly for no reason other than see who has reached out about nothing of true significance. We all do, lets not kids ourselves. San Diego is a fast paced city with growing industries, where connections are important, but nothing is more important than your health. Our goal is to create the healthiest city in America, San Diego. A whole other aspect is the lighting that our technology is using, such a light stimulates receptors in our brains. This can create an addiction component, so we really do mean technology is like the ever addicting tobacco. A recent study also shows how the blue light from our cell phones affects our eyes. We have all seen the changed perception and warnings of tobacco over the last decade. Now that we have piles and piles of studies support the negative affects of tobacco, studies are being conducted on technology. Through chiropractic in the finest city in America we truly feel the technology strong hold will be viewed differently. Our San Diego chiropractic office is here to help out with the neck pain, back pain, and headaches, but we are also here to influence healthy habits to create a life full of experiences. But to truly make an impact we need your help San Diego! We have our vision set on becoming the best chiropractor in San Diego, but with that comes education to our amazing patients that they can use outside of the office. Proper stretches, exercises, postural positions, and proper lifting techniques are essential to keeping our families safe. If you are suffering from neck pain, low back pain, headaches, or sleeping problems, give us a call to see how we can help you take that first step to a healthier lifestyle.